we flooded neighbours advice please...

blueskies10

My husband has already been down to help mop up as much as he can. Tank of dead fish, 2 upset kids, enraged neighbour, if I had money to buy a bottle of wine I would! Lets hope we can sort this situation out!

zzzLazyDaisy

blueskies10 wrote: »

I am in Scotland not England does this still apply?

I don't know, you'd need to seek advice from a scottish solicitor, or maybe the CAB in Scotland.

vaio

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

.......EDIT (for information) If you google the case "Rylands v Fletcher" you will see that it is a long held principle of English law that you are responsible for things (including water) escaping from your property and resulting in damage to your neighbour's property

I like Rylands & Fletcher too but that hinges on "non-natural" use of dangerous substances. Ordinary water, heating & waste pipes have been ruled as "natural" uses for a home and the same with fire of various sorts so there is no strict liability for escape of water or fire and negligence must be demonstrate for liability to exist. Whether the same would apply to a fish tank I'm not sure.

Transco plc v Stockport MBC might be worth a read, also Imperial Tobacco v Hart, Carstairs v Taylor & Ross v Fedden all concluded that use of water for domestic plumbing is natural use of a home and so outside Rylands

Torry_Quine

Unless you were negligent (which in this case would be that you were aware of a problem with the tank) then you are not responsible for the damage to your neighour's flat. That is why everyone should have their own insurance.

zzzLazyDaisy

This isn't domestic plumbing, it is a 300 litre fish tank brought into the flat by OP, which then emptied onto the floor of OP's flat, causing water ingress and damage in the flat below.

But in any case the law as stated Rylands and Fletcher has since been applied and modified differently in England and Scotland, hence my suggestion that OP seek advice of someone proficient in Scottish Law.

paddedjohn

OP, how much would you get for the tank and assessories if you fixed the leak? Enough to sort the problem out?

blueskies10

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Unless you were negligent (which in this case would be that you were aware of a problem with the tank) then you are not responsible for the damage to your neighour's flat. That is why everyone should have their own insurance.

we had no idea there was a problem, it has never had a problem in the 12 months we have had it. Apparently the water started leaking at 1am according to the neighbour but she never came to the door till 9am this morning to tell us water was leaking into her flat. surely if she had come up earlier the damage wouldn't have been as bad.

blueskies10

paddedjohn wrote: »

OP, how much would you get for the tank and assessories if you fixed the leak? Enough to sort the problem out?

no idea but to be honest i wouldn't even attempt to fix and sell incase it happened to someone else and it then comes back to us. im done with the tank it can go to the dump.

vaio

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

This isn't domestic plumbing, it is a 300 litre fish tank brought into the flat by OP, which then emptied onto the floor of OP's flat, causing water ingress and damage in the flat below.

But in any case the law as stated Rylands and Fletcher has since been applied and modified differently in England and Scotland, hence my suggestion that OP seek advice of someone proficient in Scottish Law.

Yep, as above it will depend on whether fish tanks count as "natural domestic" use of water. My gut instinct is they do but as you say the OP (or rather the OP's downstairs neighbour) could do with some Scottish legal advice.

Pragmatically, such legal advice is likely to cost more than just fixing the damage so maybe that's just what the OP (or their insurer) should do.

blueskies10

we have tried contacting the citizens advice centre here but they shut at 1.30pm so will need to wait until tomorrow. i feel dreadful for what happened but still just goes to show what can happen when you dont have home insurance especially if your going to spend a fortune on decoration and such things. im aware its not compulsory to have home insurance but its handy to have incase of such accidents or burglaries.